Version solving fails for package that requires >=2.19.0 when 2.19.0-444.6.beta is available

[Barabas5532]

Environment

• Dart version (run dart --version):
  • 2.19.0-444.6.beta
• OS kind and version (e.g. "Windows 10, version 1809" or "macOS 12.4"):
  • Ubuntu 22.04 (Github actions ubuntu-latest)
  • Arch Linux
• Are you using the Chinese community mirror or a corporate firewall?
  • No

Problem

The following error is printed during pub get:

Running "flutter pub get" in dart_juce_ipc...
Resolving dependencies...
The current Dart SDK version is 2.19.0-444.6.beta.

Because juce_ipc requires SDK version >=2.19.0 <4.0.0, version solving failed.
pub get failed

Also available in Github Actions: https://github.com/Barabas5532/dart_juce_ipc/actions/runs/4019136178/jobs/6931366522

name: juce_ipc
description: Implementation of inter-process communication classes from JUCE
version: 0.0.1
homepage: https://github.com/Barabas5532/flutter_juce_ipc

publish_to: 'none'

environment:
  sdk: '>=2.19.0 <3.0.0'

dependencies:
  collection: ^1.17.0
  freezed_annotation: ^2.2.0
  logging: ^1.1.0
  path: ^1.8.0

dev_dependencies:
  build_runner: ^2.0.0
  dart_pre_commit: ^4.0.0
  dcli_core: ^1.36.0
  freezed: ^2.0.0
  lints: ^2.0.1
  stdlibc: ^0.1.1
  test: ^1.0.0

# These are unlikely to cause issues, and are checked in CI anyway
dart_pre_commit:
  flutter-compat: false
  outdated: false
  pull-up-dependencies: false

I've found some related issues:

• version solving failed #2054 (comment) says that this is as designed, but that goes against the Sematic Versioning specification.
• Pub seems to get constraints of semantic versions wrong #1084 (comment) also says it's by design to avoid accidentally giving users pre-release versions.

Seems like this is documentation bug, and pub does not follow the Sematic Versioning specification as implied by the reference on this page. The main documentation page for versioning does not mention pre-releases at all.

Expected behavior

From Semantic Version 2.0.0-rc.1 :

A pre-release version MAY be denoted by appending a dash and a series of dot separated identifiers immediately following the patch version. Identifiers MUST be comprised of only ASCII alphanumerics and dash [0-9A-Za-z-]. Pre-release versions satisfy but have a lower precedence than the associated normal version. Examples: 1.0.0-alpha, 1.0.0-alpha.1, 1.0.0-0.3.7, 1.0.0-x.7.z.92.

2.19.0-444.6.beta should satisfy >=2.19.0

Actual behavior

2.19.0-444.6.beta does not satisfy >=2.19.0

--trace output

$ dart pub get --trace
Resolving dependencies...
The current Dart SDK version is 2.19.0-444.6.beta.

Because juce_ipc requires SDK version >=2.19.0 <4.0.0, version solving failed.

[Barabas5532]

I've managed to work around this by using >=2.19.0-1 as the lower bound. That resolves correctly with both 2.19.0 and 2.19.0-444.6.beta.

[sigurdm]

I think using -0 is the way to indicate that you include all prereleases.

It seems our handling of prereleases is closer to semver 2.0.0 (instead of rc-1) here. https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0#spec-item-9

Pre-release versions have a lower precedence than the associated normal version. A pre-release version indicates that the version is unstable and might not satisfy the intended compatibility requirements as denoted by its associated normal version. Examples: 1.0.0-alpha, 1.0.0-alpha.1, 1.0.0-0.3.7, 1.0.0-x.7.z.92, 1.0.0-x-y-z.--.

We should perhaps update our documentation of this. @jonasfj WDYT?